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MILITARY INTERFERENCE WITH THE ORGANIZATION 
OF A LEGISLATURE. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. T. F. BAYARD, 

OF DELAWARE, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



JANUARY 8, 1875. 



" TO THE END THAT THERE MAT BE A GOVERNMENT 
OF LAWS AND NOT OF MEN. " 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 

1875. 



F375- 



S P E»E C H 

OF 

HOIs^. THOMAS F. BAYAED. 



Mr. BAYARD said : 

Mr. Pkesident : I call for the reading of tlie resolution now before 
the Senate, and of the amendment of the Senator from New York. 

The Chief Clerk. The resolution is as follows : 

Eesolved, That the President of the United States is hereby requested to inform 
the Senate whether any portion of the Army of the United States, or any officer or 
officers, soldier or soldiers of such Army, did in any manner interfere or intermed- 
dle with, control or seek to control, the organization of the General Assembly of 
the State of Louisiana, or either branch thereof, on the 4th instant; and especially 
whether any person or persons claiming seats in either branch of said Legislature 
have been deprived thereof , or prevented from taking the same, by any such mili- 
tary force, otiicer, or soldier ; and if such has been the case, then that the President 
inform the Senate by what authority such military intervention and interference 
have taken place. 

The amendment is to insert after the word " Senate " the words "if 
in his judgment not incompatible with the public interests." 

Mr. BAYARD. Mr. President, in my judgment the amendment 
proposed by the honorable Senator from New York to this resolution 
is quite out of place and unnecessary. The resolution itself, we all 
know as a public fact, was a mere formal preliminary to congressional 
action. It was an orderly and respectful call upon a co-ordinate 
branch of the GoA-ernment to account for his apparent exercise of un- 
lawful power. I do not now propose to debate the question raised 
by the amendment of the Senator from New York , not because it is 
not important in itself, and touches an interesting, grave, and sub- 
stantial question, but because it is oyershadowed by the main subject 
upon which it is now sought to be ingrafted. Nor, since I have been 
personally referred to by that Senator as an authority to sustain the 
invariability of the amended form which he proposes, shall I do more 
than say that about two years ago I was endeavoring to save the de- 
pleted treasury of the State of South Carolina from further and gross 
peculation and robbery, and sought by a resolution of inquiry to draw 
the attention of the country and of the President of the United States 
and his subordinates to the case so that the scheme of plunder might 
be arrested, if there was a disi)osition to do so. 

In this attempt, however, I was, as usual in this body, uuvsuccess- 
f ul, for the resolution, although it was adopted early in the month of 
March, 1873, and was sent to the President, was treated by him and 
his Secretary of War with contemptuous silence, and the wrong-doer 
was not only permitted to consummate his wrong, but he has been 
encouraged to repeat it, and to-day we find him sent to " fresh fields 
and pastures new" in the State of Louisiana, to repeat there the 
operations that made his name so notorious in the State -of South 
Carolina. I refer to one Major Lewis Merrill, of the United States 



Cavalry, who has added to liis notoriety by his late congenial opera 
tions in the State of Louisiana, for which he has been specially de- 
tailed by the Secretary of War with a full knowledge of the facts 
that preceded of his conduct in South Carolina. 

The amendment to the resolutft»n originated not with me but with 
the Senator from New York, who now oiFers it in the same phrase to 
the present resolution. I was at that time compelled to accept it or 
virtually lose the possibility of having my resolution adopted. I 
oifered it as soon as the facts were made known to me. There 
were but two working days left of the session, and the objection 
which was made upon the first day would have continued it over, 
and I was glad to have it accepted in any form, even with the en- 
tirely superfluous, and, as I thought then, improper addition which 
was put upon it. I made no objection to it. In that way alone the 
resolution, as amended by the Senator from New York, came before 
the Senate. 

But, Mr. President, that is a very small matter compared to the 
gravity of the crisis in which I believe the people of the United 
States*^ find themselves this day. If I overrate it, it is because the 
deep solicitude which I feel in everything touching my public duty 
and the welfare of my countrymen must account for the error in 
judgment. I do not believe that since the American colonies sepa- 
rated themselves from the rule of Great Britain by revolutionary 
action the people of this country w^ere ever brought face to face with 
graver questions, needing braver, calmer, more deliberate considera- 
tion, than confront them to-day. It is not simply the question of the 
existence of that republican form of government which by the Con- 
stitution it is made the duty of the United States to guarantee to 
every State of this Union, and without which Louisiana stands to- 
day. It is even graver, if it be possible, more important than even 
that, for there are governments, of laws not republican in form, in 
which the objects of good government are secured and peace and 
safety given to the inhabitants. But the issue now to be raised be- 
tween the people of the United States and those whom they have 
elected as their rulers is whether this Union of States shall be gov- 
erned by law or by the mere personal will of the official ; whether 
we shall have a civil government or a militciry dictatorship ; whether 
we shall have a free government or a despotism. The issue is, if I 
mistake it not, not less grave than this. In the venerable Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts I find well stated the object for which, the 
spirit with which, these limited governments were created, and their 
charters reduced to w^riting, so that they should not depend upon the 
feebleness of men's niemories, but should he fixed in written charac- 
ters for all time. Said the peox^le of Massachusetts in their Declara- 
tion of Rights, in the fourth section : 

The people of this Commonwealth shall have the sole and exclusive right of gov- 
erning themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State ; and they shall for- 
ever iiexeafter exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not 
or may not hereafter be by them" expressly delegated to the United States of Amer- 
ica in Congress assembled. 

And in the closing section of their declaration of rights : 

In the government of this Commonwealth the legislative department shall never 
exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall 
never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial 
shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them, TO the 

END THAT IT MAY UE A GOVERNMENT OF LAWS, AND NOT OF MEN. 

There is the soul of the declaration of rights upon which the gov- 
ernment of the ancient Commonwealth of Massachusetts stood in 



1779, and under and subject to-wliicli her people have lived to this 
day. 

!Mr. President, absolute, unlimited power is unknown to the Amer- 
ican system of government, or to any other system of government 
pretending to be called free. The people of the States and the States 
as integral parts of the Federal Union have delegated certain enu- 
merated powers to their rulers, and reserved all others expressly in 
their written charter to the States and to the people. To omit the 
execution of just power is clearly a breach of duty of the Executive, 
and to assume power not delegated is a usurpation quite as danger- 
ous as rebellion and just as promptly to be checked. 

Now, sir, in what spirit should an American Senator approach the 
consideration of a question like this? Should it not be gravely, 
moderately, restrainedly, and without excitement, discussed ? How 
unlike should it be to the remarks which we have here printed in the 
records of the proceedings of this body, which fell from the honora- 
ble Senator from Indiana, [Mr. MoRTOX,] and from his associates from 
Vermont and from Illinois, [Messrs. Edmunds and Logan,] in which 
every line seems to breathe' hatred, to blaze with excitement, to be 
filled with violent epithets, with general arraignment and indictment 
of the whole white population of a sister State, so that it seems to 
me their speeches must have been intended to obscure the real point 
at issue and to envelop the subject in a cloud of excitement, to 
awaken anew the bitterness of sectional animosity; and^ by sound- 
ing the trumpet of mere party, to draw their hearers away from that 
standard of sworn patriotic duty to support and defend the Consti- 
tution of their Government. I shall not imitate them. My sense of 
indignation is strong, but it is to be silenced by my sense of sorrowful 
apprehension of evil to my country. 

Sir, in the course of the late dreadful war between the States of 
this Union, I heard of a widowed mother, bereft of husband, of child, 
of property, sitting in the midst of her desolation, with a bleeding 
heart, who was asked whether she did not hate those w^ho had thus 
wronged her ; and her answer was, " My heart is too full of sorrow, to 
have any room for anger." 

Now, sir, what are the facts of this case? An election on Novem- 
ber the 3d was held in Louisiana, as in the other States. It was 
conducted with earnestness and some excitement, and yet peace- 
ably — certainly orderly. The entire machinery for conducting and 
supervising that election was in the hands of the acting governor of 
the State and his political adherents. The forms of election were 
maintained and they were generally exercised, and the returns were 
wholly in the handsof '* Governor " Kellogg, as he is called, and his ad- 
herents. He committed them to a returning board who kept them 
in the face of the country, under a pretense of tabulation and count- 
ing, for nearly'- two months, lacking I think but two days. Other 
States nearly five or six times as populous found their returns tabu- 
lated and correctly counted within less than a week. In most of the 
great cities of the country, containing far more population than the 
whole State of Louisiana, forty-eight hours had not elapsed before 
there was a tabulation and count of the votes. But this tabulation 
and counting was retarded and delayed by the returning board, the 
appointees of Kellogg, for the foul and wicked purpose declared and 
proven by their opponents, forgery proven, the substitution of false 
returns for real returns, the arbitrary rejection of clear testimony in 
regard to the election ; even a public holiday, the Thanksgiving Day, 
violated for the jmrpose of breaking open the envelopes and roplac- 



6 

ing the true returns by forged ones. All these tilings are not only- 
alleged but proven and are known to the country. The delay had 
its object, and the object ATas fraud, and the fraud was perpetrated, 
and in every case where fraud was perpetrated it was a fraud against 
the conservative party of the State and in favor of that party known 
as the Kellogg party. To that there is no exception ; it stands the 
invariable rule of these fraudulent alterations. 

The conservatives were vigilant, they were constant, they were 
courageous ; but their apprehensions were but too sadly to be veri- 
hed, and the overwhelming majority of the conservatives in the 
Legislature of the State of Louisiana was nullified, and a small 
majority — I believe of two votes — given to the Kellogg party in the 
house of representatives by the garbled, false, partial returns of this 
board. This was done in the presence of the whole country. Day 
by day the charge was made and proven. The coun try knew it. 
No one denied it. The President of the United States was advised of 
it ; he was kept well informed of it, and his semi-official utterances, 
made known to the people, were that, no matter what frauds should 
be accomplished by this board, they should be maintained at every 
cost, or that " somebody should be hurt" in case interference was 
attempted with their nefarious prceedings; that is to say, if any 
resistance to a clear, i)lain wrong was made by an outraged community. 

On the 4th of January the Legislature of Louisiana, under the consti- 
tution of that State, were to assemble in the State-house in the city of 
New Orleans; they were to organize their respective bodies. The 
constitution of the State of Louisiana provides in article 34, entitled 
•" Of the legislative department," first — 

That the numher of representatives shall never exceed one hiuidred and twenty 
nor be less than ninety. 

Art. 34. That each house of the General Assembly shall judge of the qualitica- 
tions, election, and returns of its members ; but a contested election shall be deter- 
mined in such manner as may be prescribed by law. 

Art. 35. Each house of the General Assembly may determine the rulesof its pro- 
ceedings, punish a member for disorderly conduct, and, with a concurrence of two- 
thirds, expel a member ; but not a seconcl time for the same oftense. 

Art. 37. Each bouse may punish by imprisonment any person not a member for 
disrespect and disordeily behavior in its presence, or for obstructing any of its pro- 
ceedings ; such imprisonment shall not exceed ten days for any one offense. 

Such is the language of the constitution of Louisiana. Now, let 
us consider for one instant the value of this right given exclusively 
to each House to determine the rules for its own proceedings and to 
pass upon the elections, qualifications, and returns of its own mem- 
bers. Like all things that are of value, it was not reached in a day, 
but its path was a j)ath of difficulty to those who achieved it. The 
history of this right, this English-born right of self-government by 
the representatives of the people, is well related in The Law and 
Practice of Legislative Assemblies by Gushing at section 146 : 

The present constitution of the House of Commons is, to a considerable extent 
the result of a series of struggles between it, on the one hand, and the sovereign, or 
the lords, or both, on the other. One of the earliest of these conflicts, and one of 
the most interesting, is that which terminated in the establishment of the right of 
the Commons to be the exclusive judges of the retiuns, elections, and qualitica- 
tions of their own members. This right, after having been claimed and exercised 
at one time by the king and council, at another by tlie House of Lords, and. again, 
by the lord chancellor, was declai-ed by a resolution of the Commons, in 1624, and 
has ever since been admitted to belong exclusively to the house itself, as "its 
ancient, natural, and undoubted privilege." 

This power is so essential to the free election and independent existence of a 
legislative assembly that it may be regarded as a necessary incident to every 
body of that description which emanates directly fTom the people; it is also, out of 
abundant caution, conferred upon or guaranteed to most of the legislative 
assemblies of the United States by express constitutional provisions. 



In accordance witli this inherent right, incidental to the very 
uatnre of the body, was the constitutional guarantee which, as the 
writer has said, out of plenary caution was introduced into the consti- 
tution of the State of Louisiana. There was a voluntary and orderly 
attendance of 101 or 102 elected and persons claiming to he members- 
elect of the house of representatives of the Legislature of the State 
of Louisiana on the 4th day of January instant, niore than a quorum 
under the constitution of the State. But under what circumstances 
did these representatives of the will of the people of Louisiana assem- 
ble ? In the State-house, not the custom-house or any other United 
States building, but in the house of the State of Louisiana. And in 
whose hands did they find it? On the evening previous it had been 
garrisoned with what were called the Metropolitan police, the adher- 
ents and partisans and sole appointees of Kellogg, the acting gov- 
ernor. Around the house, controlling access to it u^jon two sides, were 
armed troops of the United States acting in force under the command 
of an officer of the United States under delegated authority from the 
President of the United States. The lawful citizens of the State of 
Louisiana were forbidden to approach their State-house. They who 
alone were privileged spectators were forbidden to exercise the'^high, 
the inherent, the essential privilege of witnessing the convention of 
their own State Legislature. There was a member of Congress, well 
known and esteemed by all — I refer to Mr. Potter, of New York, at 
present a member of the investigating committee there — who sought 
in vain as a private citizen of a sister State to approach and witness 
the form of inauguration of the assembly, and was forbidden by armed 
force. 

I consider his rejection an outrage ; and unlawful ; but I consider 
that the jjoorest and the meanest citizen of Louisiana had a i^recedent 
right even over my respected friend to enter the hall and to witness 
the inauguration of the Legislature in whose election he had cast his 
vote and who were to be the makers of laws under which he should 
live. But until the House committee appointed to make this inves- 
tigation shall return, I will not attempt to recite any disputed or dis- 
putable fact. I shall take facts which are admitted and established, 
and refer to them alone. 

There was an organization of that house. There was a speaker 
elected and placed in his chair. There was a clerk also chosen, and 
this was done in the presence of a quorum of the house of represen- 
tatives constitutionally convened, and by the votes of a constitutional 
majority of those present, quietly, regularly, and peacefully cast. I 
will not now argue the regularity or the irregularity of the initiation 
of this organization. The Kellogg party may have been deceived as 
to their numbers, and outwitted by the defection in their own ranks, 
or by the superior parliamentary skill and knowledge of their oj^po- 
nents ; the organization may have been perfectly regular or it may 
have been in some degree irregular and open to criticism ; but it is 
certain that it was quiet, that it was peaceful, and unaccompanied by 
any threat or act of violence on the part of any conservative member. 
When I say that I mean that it was unaccompanied by any show of 
that "domestic violence'' which is s^Doken of in the Constitution, 
which gives the President of the United States the right to interfere, 
and there was no pretext for the existence of anything capable of 
being termed " violence" on the part of the one hundred and one mem- 
bers of the Legislature so convened. On the contrary, Mr. President, 
there was a dignity far removed from violence ; there was a courage 
far diflerent from bluster, which would have become a Koman senate 



8 

even in tlie presence of some barbarian horde. It is said that even a 
rude Goth at the head of his forces was impelled to yield involuntary 
respect to the aged and unarmed men of the Roman senate who wit- 
nessed in their placid dignity the invasion of their council chamber; 
but it seems that an officer of the Army of the United States is un- 
touched by any such restraining influences, and knows no law of 
restraint but the will of his superior officer, no matter what may be 
the outrage upon the rights of his fellow citizens, or the laws and 
the Constitution of his country, which he may have been ruthlessly 
ordered to commit. 

The house of representatives of Louisiana was on the 4th of this 
present month purged of five members who were in their official 
seats, quietly and peaceably filling their places in that body, having 
been admitted and sworn into office by the only competent body to 
admit them or pass upon their qualifications. They were purged just 
as in 1648 one Colonel Pride, with his two regiments, purged the 
bouse of parliament at the order of a Cromwell : seized forty-one 
members, displaced them by force, excluded one hundred and sixty 
others, and thus he constituted that fag-end of a government that 
has come down hissed by posterity as the ''rump" of a parliament, 
and which lived its wretched and disgraceful career five short years, 
until the hand of the master that had constituted it drove it with 
shame from the place where his power alone had placed it. Sir, does 
not history repeat itself, and will men be forever deaf to its lessons 
until they burn themselves in by painful experience ? 

Mr. President, I ask the Senate, I ask the American people, had 
President Grant the legal warrant for interference by troops at that 
time, in that manner, at that place ? Had Governor Kellogg the 
power himself to do it ? Had he the lawful power to call upon the 
President or any other person to interfere as was done on that day ? 
Where is the law, where is the constitutional provision from which 
such right can be implied, however remotely or indirectly ? There 
has been none yet cited, and I make bold here to-day to say that this 
debate will begin and it will close, and there will be no lawyer, as I 
believe, of this body who will be able to produce the statute or even 
attempt to twist or force the construction of words that will give any 
warrant for this act. 

There stands the constitution of the State of Louisiana, the provis- 
ions of which I have read. There stands the Constitution of the 
United States, containing its enumerated and delegated powers to 
the President as to all other departments of this Government. Where 
do we see them now? Overthrown and cast down by the furious 
lawlessness, by the unlawful ambition, of these two officials whom I 
have named, the creature and the creator. Look at it, Senators! 
Look at it, people of the United States ! • Contemplate the picture of 
that dispersed Assembly ; read the protest of the peaceable and or- 
derly men ejected by brute force from their lawful places in that As- 
sembly, and then say whether party passion or sectional prejudice can 
constrain you to approve it, or prevent you from grave and deliberate 
condemnation of the act, and of those who have committed it. 

But, Mr. President, such conduct is, I am sorry to say, not new in 
Louisiana. It is but a leaf out of the book of the sad story of that 
State. Two years ago it was under pretended forms of law, that 
only made the fact more loathsome, by mingling more fraud with 
force. The act to-day is more bare-faced, and in that I think there 
may be some security to my fellow-countrymen. 

I will take leave, not in egotism but in justification of what I say 



9 

to-day, to read some remarks which I made in the Senate on the 27th 
of February, 1873, at the hour of six o'clock in the morning, when I 
and otliers had been kept here in weary and fruitless debate upon 
some bill relating to the State of Louisiana unauthorized, as I believe 
utterly unauthorized, by the Federal Constiiution. I said then : 

I believe it is never wise to blink the trutli. I believe it is never wise in govern- 
ing a peoj)le in any way to deceive them, ,or to rule them by false promises. And 
here 1 state to the Senate and the country that I believe these governments "so 
called " in the Southern States are but thin veils for actual military power in the 
hands of the Federal Administration. Those governments are permitted to exist so 
long as they please "the powers that be." So long as they pronounce the shibbo- 
leth of your party, so long and no longer those wlio represent the governments will 
be protected, but it is intended to overshadow them from time to time by the hand 
of Federal power, so that they may be taught that unless they do conduct them- 
selves according to the will of tlieir real masters, not even the forms of republican 
government shall exist, It matters not whether the end is reached by Durell and 
his pretended "judicial " orders, or Casey with his Gatlin guns or revenue-cutters, 
or Attorney-General Williams with his ''fusion " suggestions, or swarms of United 
States marshals aud their deputies to enforce congressional election laws— all are 
part and parcel of the scheme aud system of that coercive power which is the real 
government of this country. 

Sir. if the President of the United States shall proclaim martial law in Louisiana, 
if he shall take possession of that State, he will only be doing openly what his 
party in fact have been doing for the last six or seven years under the tliin veil and 
flimsy disguise of legal forms. There has not been a time when troops have not 
either actually gone there or have been threatened to be sent there. No one can 
doubt that Judge Durell would never have dared to issue this order, nor would any 
one have thought of obeving it, if there had not been an intimation to him that 
the power of the Federal Aimy would back him up and would sustain the faction 
that he was creating under the name of a government. I do not doubt it. I do 
not think the people of this country can doubt it ; at any rate, I say here in my 
place to them I believe it to be true"i and I think the facts warrant the belief. 

Therefore, sir, believing at any time that I would rather know my fate, and I 
trust I will never be afraid to look my fate in the face, I do feel that our Govern- 
ment is passing away from us because we are losing the disposition and the means 
of enforcing those limitations upon the powers of those who rule us, and they are 
disregarding them. That which is the law for Louisiana to-day may be made the 
law for Pennsylvania or Xew York to-morrow. It has been tJireatened in New 
York ; it has been earned ahiiost to the same point in New York ; her peaceful 
streets have been filled with Federal troops on the occasion of popular election ; 
her waters and her docks have held armed vessels ready to hail destruction upon 
her citizens and their property. Those things have beeii witnessed by the Ameri- 
can people, but their meaning seems to havebeen but faintly understood ; and now 
I would say to the people of every other State, " Eead in the fate of Louisiana to- 
day what well may be your own when the necessities of party shall call upon those 
in power to make it so." 

I know that I say this at the commencement of a new lease of power of the 
republican party, when we are to have four more years of government probably by 
the same Executive, possibly by the same Congre'ss as heretofore; and yet, never- 
theless, the time must come when the people of this country shall asrain express 
their will, and all that I can do is to tell them the truth as I see it, and then if it 
be my fate to stand in the minority, that will not the least silence my voice ; that 
will not the least change my ardent a.spirations to serve my fellow-meii. aud -I shall 
warn them, as I warn them now, of the dangers I apprehend, and indicate the 
proper modes of meeting them. 

Such, sir, were my views expressed here in open debate, nearly two 
years ago. Again, when this subject was up on the °20th of April, 1874, 
I stated the fact that — 

Under the thin veil of a pretended republican form of government, the real govern- 
ment of Louisiana to-day is military force. It is a sham to call it anything else. You 
lift the gown of the judge, and you find the saber of the dragoon ; you enter the ex- 
ecutive chamber, and the power there is the power of the sword aiid not of the law. 
The government of Louisiana to-day is nothing but military power, protecting dis- 
honest men who wear the sham robes of State office. 

Mr. President, has this policy on the part of the President been 
changed ? Reading by the events of to-day this ineffectual debate 
of mine nearly two years old, who shall challenge the truth of those 



10 

utterances ? They were sincerely made ; they have been confirmed by 
time, the irrefutable register of truth. What has been the policy of 
the President of the United States ? Has it been moderated or mod- 
ified? Nay, sir, it has only been doggedly intensified. There is not 
in that State one case of abuse of power, of peculation, robbery, and 
filthy dishonesty, with which the history of its government is filled 
in the last two years, in which his displeasure has ever been signified 
by the removal of an improper official, not one word of rebuke. On 
the contrary, there has been personal and official encouragement of 
men who stand before the nation branded as dishonest and unworthy 
and whom no man would trust with his private affairs or give power 
to in matters affecting himself in any way. 

In the midst of this excitement, in the midst of this blow at the very 
heart of popular government, who has he selected to preside over the 
aff"airs of that State? Lieutenaut-General Philip Sheridan, sent by 
him to New Orleans secretly, not by public order known to the people. 
He is sent down to dragoon the people of Louisiana into slavish, fear- 
ful, cringing, un-American obedience to his will and pleasure. He 
arrives there only three days before the assembling of the Legislature. 
He sees none of those who have the welfare of the community at heart. 
From Kellogg and his adherents, the men who have brought this 
trouble and sorrow upon the State by their own corrupt and selfish 
ambition, he takes his account. They inform him, they inspire him, 
and from the recesses of his pocket he suddenly produces the authority 
and "assumes the command of that military district," over which there 
was already a competent commander regularly and publicly assigned. 
Instantly, without other public order, that commander is superseded, 
other officers both higher and lower in rank than General Sheridan are 
passed by, andheispersonally selected to undertake the task of unlaw- 
ful interference with the free government of a sovereign State of this 
Union. 

Now, it is not my purpose in any degree to detract from whatever 
of renown may have rested upon the brow of this officer. I would 
be incompetent to criticise his military career, and that is all I be- 
lieve that he has. It is a career of force, a career of vigor, a career 
of rough war, of which I know but little, and therefore am incompe- 
tent to criticise him as to that respect. But, sir, I also know that he 
is an officer of the Army of the United States, that he is fed and 
clothed by the people of the United States, and that he is the serv- 
ant of those people, and not in any just sense their master ; that he 
received the military education that has enabled him to become so 
eminent at the national academy and at public cost. The Constitu- 
tion of the United States is still a text-book of that institution. It 
was a text-book when this officer received his graduation ; and yet 
it seems to me that while he must have read it, while he must have 
known that his commission as an Army officer took its roots in the 
principles of civil liberty which that Constitution was intened to se- 
cure, yet he has forgotten almost its first and most necessary instruc- 
tions. Sir, has he not forgotten that, "a well-regulated militia being 
necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to 
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed?" Has he not forgotten 
that ''the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and efi^ects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall 
not be violated?" That "no person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime 'unless on a presentment or in- 
dictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval 
forces, or in the militia 'when in actual service in time of war or pub- 



11 

lie danger?" Nor that any pervson shall be " deprived of life, liberty^ 
or property without due process of law?" That "in all criminal 
prosecutions the accused shall enjoy tbe right to a speedy and public 
trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime 
shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to 
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense?" 

Sir, if these things were read by that officer, surely he must have 
forgotten them, or else has the more guilty audacity to ride rough- 
shod over them. If he has forgotten, let him now be taught anew. 
Let us see who is the stronger. The issue cannot come too soon. If 
this cavalry officer, with whatever renown he may have gained with 
his bloody sword, shall be stronger than these guarantees of personal 
liberty which we supposed were secured to us, let us know it now. 
We cannot have the issue raised too soon or too distinctly decided. 

Now sir, I ask the Senate and the country to listen to the tone of 
this officer and see, when you have read his dispatches to the Admin- 
istration here, who shall say he is even fit to breathe the air of a 
republican government. I ibelieve this officer reached New Orleans 
about the 1st of January, and on the 4th of January he telegraphed 
to the Secretary of War, Hon. W. W. Belknap, as follows : 

[. Headquarters Military Division of Missouri, 

Xevj Orleans, January 4. 
Hon. W. W. Belknap, 

Secretary of War, Washington, D. G. 
It is with deep regret that I have to announce to you the existence in this State 
of a spirit of cletiance to all lawful authority and an insecurity of life which is 
hardly realized by the General Government or country at large. The lives of 
citizens have become so jeopardized that unless something is done to give protection 
to the people all security usually atforded by law will be overridden. Defiance to 
laws and murder of individuals s'eem to be looked upon by the commimity here from 
a stand-point which gives impunity to all who choose to indulge in either; and the 
eivil government appears powerless to punish, or even arrest. I have to-night 
assumed control over the Department of the Gulf. 

P. H. SHERrDA:N-, 

Lieutenant-General. 

" Assumed control over the Department of the Gulf ! " Here is 
then from the hand of this mere soldier, military in instinct and in 
education, and ignorant of civil right or law, the cool complacence 
of ignorance, that he could do that of which even the great mind 
of the most philosophic statesman and lawyer of modern times de- 
clared himself incapable. Burke declared he could not draw an 
indictment against a whole peoj^le ; but it seems that — 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 

Mr. Sheridan can indict an entire community and declare this 
wholesale destruction of their moral character upon three nights' 
acquaintance in one city of a large State. Mr. President, there have 
been replies to this, made uxjon the instant these telegrams were 
published. 

At a meeting of the Merchants' Exchange, largely attended, the 
following series of resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Be it resolved, That we condemn as a positive untruth and as a libel upon the 
community the statement of General Sheridan, contained in the above; that we 
deny herewith that the spirit of defiance against lawful authority exists and that 
the lives of citizens have become jeopardized thereby. 

Resolved, That we emphatically condemn, as law-abiding citizens, and do most 
solemnly and earnestly protest against the militarv interference with and the dis- 
organization of the Legislature of Louisiana, which was duly elected by ourselves 
and the citizens of the State. 



12 

The board of underwriters met and passed similar resolutions, de- 
nouncing as utterly untrue and unwarranted tliese assertions of the 
Lieutenant-Genera] . The Cotton Exchange, on the same day, had a 
full meeting, and adopted the following unanimously: 

Whereas General P. H. Sheridan, commanding the Military Division of Mis- 
souri, has seen fit to address to the honorable Secretary of "War'a letter, dated Jan - 
nary 4, and published in our papers of this date, in which he has given utterance to 
statements reflecting upon the people of this State, and particularly of such as re- 
side in this city, singularly at variance with the condition of things now and here- 
tofore existing in this city and State, and well calculated not only to detract from 
our good name as law-loving and law-abiding citizens, but also to seriously injure 
the commercial interests of our city, the Cotton Exchange, an organization totally 
disconnected from political affairs, and instituted solely for the promotion of com- 
mercial interests, feels called upon to enter a solemn protest against the allegations 
contained in said letter. ' 

The members of this exchange give solemn assurance to the people of the United 
States and to the fi-iends of truth and justice wherever found, that the allegations 
of General Sheridan are not only false in point of fact, but evince the spirit of a 
mere partisan rather than the iiobility of a soul which should characterize the 
utterances of an officer commanding the army of a great nation. It is painfully 
evident that, coming among us an almost entire stranger, General Sheridan has 
limited his inquiries into the condition of affairs here to those whose interests it 
is not only to falsify facts but to promote that spirit of lawlessness with which we 
are falsely charged. It woultl not indeed be a matter of surprise if crimes in our 
midst were more frequent, when it is borne in mind that the police force, for the 
maintenance of which we areheavily taxed, is now, and has been, diverted from its 
legitimate duties to such an extent "that large districts of our city are entirely with- 
out protection, and many of our citizens are compelled to employ' private watch- 
men for protection against thieves and burglars. 

Then came an address from the committee of seventy citizens of 
New Orleans, gentlemen of standing and character, the lueanest man 
among them the peer in all respects of this othcer of the United 
States Army who has slandered them, in which they protest against 
his calumnious statements, and call upon the people of their State to 
exercise more of heroism and patience and forbearance, which will 
arouse the sympathies of the entire country in their behalf ; and God 
grant it may. 

Then comes an appeal of the clergy of New Orleans to the Ameri- 
can x^eople. 
To the American people: 

Whereas General Sheridan, now in command of the Division of the Missoiu:i, 
under the date of the 4th instant, has addressed a communication to Hon. W. W. Bel- 
knap, Secretary of War, in which he represents the people of Louisiana at large a^ 
breathing vengeance to all lawful authority and approving of murders and crimes: 
We, the undersigned, believe it our duty to proclaim to the whole American people 
that these charges are unmerited, unfounded, and erroneous, and can have no 
other effect than that of serving the interests of corrupt politicians, who are at this 
moment making the most extreme efforts to perpetuate their power over the State 
of Louisiana. 

N. J. PERCHE, 

Archbishop of Netu Orleans. 

J. P. B. AVILMER, 

Bishop of Louisiana. 

JAMES K. GUTHEKIM, 

Pastor Temple of Sinai. 

J. C. KEENEPv, 

Bishop M. E. Church South. 

C. DOLL, 
Hector St. JosejJh's Church. (And many others.) 

Then again in to-day's paper there is a protest from other divines, 
the Bishop of Little Rock and others. In another dispatch of Gen- 
eral Sh(nidan, which I have not yet read, he goes further and ar- 
raigns not only the people of New Orleans, Louisiana, but the entire 
communities of three States, in none of which does it appear he has 
been except for the period of three days at the city of New Orleans. 



13 

Let me now rccad further. On the 5th of January he telegraphs 
the Secretary of War at Washington : 

Headquarters of the Military Dmsiox of Missouri, 
-r^ .^^ ^^ -^"^^" Orleans, Louisiana, January 5, 1875. 

Hon. W. W. Belknap, 

Secretarjj of ^Var, Washington, D. G. : 
I think the terrorism now existin.o; in Lonisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas could 
be entirely removed and confidence and fair dealing established by the arrest and 
trial of the ringleaders of the armed white leagnes. If Congress wonld pass a 
bill declaring them banditti, they could be tried by a military commission. This 
banditti, who mnrdered men here onthe 14th of last September, also more recently 
at Yicksbnrgh, Mississippi, should, in justice to law and order and the peace and 

prosperity of this southern part of the country, be punished. It is possible that 
if the President would issue a proclamation declaring them banditti, no further 
action need be taken except that which would devolve upon me. 

P. H. SHEEIDAN, 
Lieutenant-General United States Army. 

Ah, Mr. President, if there was the tone that under other adminis- 
trations animated the Executive of this country, he woukl never 
sign his name again as Lieutenant-General of the United States Army. 
Is this the language of an American officer toward his fellow-coun- 
trymen ? Why, sir, if he were in a hostile country among the sick and 
wretched Piegan Indians, had he been in the service of Mexico, there 
could not have been a more ruthless, a darker, or more bloody threat 
than is contained in the closing lines of this dispatch to the Secretary 
of War. This is language relating to the citizens of three States of 
this Union. Is it the language that is due from an officer of the Army 
of the United States, wearing that honorable uniform, the protector, 
the guard, the glory of his people, without destinction of party ; or 
is it not the language of some captain of a band of janizaries, asking 
orders from an oriental despot in regard to his ruthless extermination 
of those whom he may deem the foes of power ? This man, educated 
with one of his text-books the Constitution of his country, asks that 
Congress shall pass an ex post facto law, making that a crime which 
wa« not a crime at the time of the commission of the alleged offense, 
and creating new punishments to make the penalty still more severe. 
He asks for military commissions, in these times of peace, to try men 
neither in the land nor naval service of the United States. He asks 
for drum-head court-martials to try citizens over whom there is no 
pretense that the authority of the Army or of the Na^^ is extended. 
What is the dark and bloody threat at' the close of his dispatch^ for 
Senators ? What did he mean when he asked the President to issue 
a proclamation declaring these citizens banditti, and that then no 
further action need be taken except that which would devolve vpon 
him? ^ 

I confess to you as I read this dispatch my blood curdled in my 
veins. If it had been sent in the midst of strife by a man heated by 
the excitement of combat, there might have been palliation for it, 
because a cooling time would have come when his better reason would 
operate, when "Philip sober" would have answered this ''Philip 
drunk."^ But this dispatch was penned in safety ; it was penned in 
quiet ; it was penned where there was nothing that threatened him, 
and without anything to cause him excitement except the appre- 
hended loss of political power to the chief whom he was sent there 
to represent. 

What character does this officer seek to assume ? There was Tristan 
I'Hermite, the provost-marshal of the royal household, whom the 



14 

genius of Scott lias painted until he is familiar in every liouseliold. 
It seems to me that this officer has modeled himself much upon the 
morals and conduct of this hangman of royalty of days gone by. 

Sir, I say that in a proper condition of sentiment with those in 
power he would not have heen suifered to remain for live minutes in 
command at New Orleans. He has no one quality that fits him prop- 
erly for the duties of command there now. His first requisite should 
be good-will and kindness to the x^eople, strict impartiality ; no 
threats of force, careful obedience to civil rule. This was the ex- 
ample he should have set as a high official, honored by his country, 
and invested with high discretionary powers; and, as this example 
does not seem to originate with him, I want it now taught him, and 
taught so that not alone he will not forget, but that every other offi- 
cer of the Army and Navy of the United States will learn and know 
"that it is in the affections, in the respect of their fellow-countrymen, 
and not in their fears, that they are to find their place of honor and 
of safety. 

Sir, I said he has cruelly maligned these populations among whom 
he has gone, and I have allowed them in their own way to answer 
him, not beginning to recite the numerous protests that have fol- 
low^ed his false and calumnious charges against them. Sir, it is per- 
fectly shocking, and I think a civilized world everywhere must be 
deeply shocked when such dispatches are read. We have talked 
about the Russian rule in Poland and have held it up as an abhor- 
rent example of cruelty ; but what dispatch ever sent to a Russian 
Czar exceeded in remorseless savagery the closing lines of the dis- 
patch of General Sheridan on the 5th of January to Belknap, Secre- 
tary of War ? I wish it ended there, I wish it ended with him ; but 
alas! alas! here we find on the 7th of January the Secretary of War 
answering in the following phrase : 

Tour telegrams all received. The President and all of us Lave full couiideuce 
and tliorouglily approve your course. 

I know not how fitly to designate such a communication, except to 
say that every expression of disgust, of horror, of antagonism that I 
have expressed toward the action of General Sheridan in his dis- 
patches is rather increased toward those who could pen or concur in 
such an answer as that. The American people must answer it. 
They must answer it from their hearts, and I believe there is after 
all in the human heart such a response to kindness, such a natural 
love of justice, that they will repudiate Mr. Belkna|i *' and all of us " 
to whom he so loosely and generally refers, should they undertake to 
indorse the action of General Sheridan in New Orleans and his dis- 
patches to the Department of War. 

Mr. President, in 1866 the Supreme Court of the United States 
found it necessary to pass upon the questions now raised by General 
Sheridan and proposed to be applied, not one year after the close of 
an excited, a dreadful, and extensive civil war, but ten long years 
after the war has gone by, and the hearts and hands of the American 
peox)le have come once more together — are i)roposed to be applied by 
him not even as a law, but under the simple, arbitrary fiat of the 
President of the [United States. Said this court in considering the 
case of Milligan, who had been tried, who had been condemned and 
all but executed by a military commission in the State of Indiana : 

The controlling question in the case is this: TJpon the facts stated in MiHigan's 
petition and the exhibits filed, had the military coinmission mentioned power 
in its jurisdiction legally to try and sentence him ? Milligan, not a resident of one 
of the rebellious States or a prisoner of war, but a citis^eh of Indiana for twentj 



15 

.years past, and uever iu the military or naval sei-vice, is, while at his home, arrested 
by the military power of the United States, imprisoned, and, on certain criminal 
charges preferred against him, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged by 
a military commission organized under the direction of the military commander 
of the military district of Indiana. Had this tribunal the legal power and author- 
ity to try and punish this man ?| 

No graver question was ever considered by this court, nor one which more nearly 
concerns the rights of the whole people, for it is the birthright of every American 
citizen when charged with crime to be tried and punished according to' law. The 
power of punishment is alone through the means which the laws have provided for 
that purpose ; and if they are inefiectual, there is an immunity from punishment, no 
matter how great an otfender the individual may be, or how nuich his crimes may 
have shocked the sense of justice of the country or endangered its safety. By the 
protection of the law human rights are secured; withdraw that protection, and they 
are at the mercy of wicked rulers or the clamor of an excited people. If there was 
law to justify this military tiial, it is not our province to interfere ; if there was not, 
it is our duty to declare the nullity of the whole proceedings. The decision of this 
<luestion does not depend on argument or judicial precedents, numerous and highly 
illustrative as they are. These precedents inform us of the extent of the struggle to 
preserve liberty and to relieve those in civil life from military trials. The founders 
of our government were familiar with the history of that struggle, and secured in 
a written Constitutipn every right which the peojple had wrested from power dur- 
ing a contest of ages. By that Constitution and the laws authorized by it this ques- 
tion must be determined. The provisions of that instrument on the administra- 
tion of criminal justice are too plain and direct to leave room for misconstructiou 
or doubt of their true meaning. Those applicable to this case are found in that 
clause of the original Constitution which savs " that the trial of all crimes, ex- 
cept in case of impeachment, shall be by jury ;'" and in the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
articles of the amendments. The fourth proclaims the right to be secure in per- 
son and eftects against unreasonable search and seizure, and directs that a judi- 
cial warrant shall not issue "without proof of probable cause, supported by oath 
or affirmation." The fifth declares " that no person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentment by a grand jury, except 
in cases arising in the land or naval forces or iu the militia wlien in actual service 
in time of war or public danger, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or ijroperty with- 
out due process of law." 

The court proceed to recite the amendments 'which I have read iu 
full before, to secure the pers<^)ual liberty of the citizen : 

These securities for personal liberty thus embodied were such as wisdom and expe- 
rience has demonstrated to be necessary for the protection of those accused of 
crime. And so strong was the sense of the country of their importance, and so jeal- 
ous were the people that these rights, higlily prized, might be denied them by impli- 
cation, that when the original Con.stitution was proposed for adoption it encountered 
severe opposition ; and but for the belief that it would be so amended as to embrace 
them, it would never have been ratified. 

Time has proven the discernment of our ancestors ; for even these nrovisions, ex- 
pressed in such plain English words that it would seem the ingenuity of man could 
not evade them, are now, after the lapse of more than seventy years, souglit t» be 
avoided. Those great and good men foresaw that troublous times would arise, 
w-hen rulers and people would become restive under restraint, and seek by sharp 
and decisive measures to accomplish ends deemed just and proper, and that the 
principles of constitutional liberty would be iu peril, unless established bv irrepeal- 
able law. The history of the world had taughtthem that what was done in the past 
might be attempted in the future. 

***** 5t K 

'No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the 
wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during anv of the great 
exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directlv to anarchy or despot- 
ism ; but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false ; for the Government, 
within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it which are necessary to 
preserve its existence, as has been happily proved by the result of the great effort 
to throw ofif its just authority. 

On the following page — 

It is claimed that martial law covers with its broad mantle the proceedings of 
this military commission. 

That is what this officer desires the President of the United States 
to proclaim, thinking that a ])roclamation by the President will be a 
carte hlanche to him to steep his hands in the*^ blood of his fellow-citi- 
zens in that city. 



16 

It is claimed tliat martial law covers with its broal mautle the proceedings of 
this military commission. The proposition is tliis : That in a time of war the com- 
mander of an armed force, (if in his opinion the exigencies of the country demand 
it, and of which he is to judge,) has the power, within the lines of his military dis- 
trict, to suspend all civil rigiits and their remedies, and subject citizens as well as 
soldiers t« the rule of his ivill ; and in the exercise of his lawful authority cannot 
be restrained, except by his superior officer or the President of the United States. 

If this position is sound to tlie extent claimed, then, when war exists, foreign or 
domestic, and the country is subdivided into military depavtments for mere conve- 
nience, the commander of one of them can, if he chooses, within his limits, on the 
plea of necessity, wnth the approval of the Executive, substitute military force for 
and to the exclusion of the laws, and punish all persons as he thinks right and 
proper, without tixed or certain rules. 

The statement of this proposition shows its importance: for, if true republican 
government is a failui^e, and there is an end of liberty regulated by law. (4 Wal- 
lace's Reports.) 

I will not apologize for the length of the extract I have read, 
because these truths are of cardiual iniportauce at this crisis of 
affairs, and, being gravely enunciated by thi5 high tribunal, should 
have influence upon every man within this Chamber, as well as every 
citizen in the United States. 

It was my duty three years ago, as a member of a committee of this 
body, to investigate the condition of atfairs in the State of North 
Carolina, to spend with my associates two or three months in taking 
testimony, and then we submitted reports, upon it. Unable to con- 
cur in the report of the majority, the minority, consistiug of myself 
and one of the most gallant soldiers of the late war, (Senator F. P. 
Blair, of Missouri,) presented their views. At the time this minority 
report was made we closed it with a quotation from an eminent 
statesman, to which exception wjis taken under a misunderstanding 
by my friend from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Scott,] and I remember his 
reading it as though.under an idea that it was meant to be descript- 
ive of himself in any degree. The proposition was abstract and most 
true, in regard to the effect upon men's character and nature of con- 
tinued acts of violence and oppression. I read this extract from our 
former report, because its truth has been vindicated by what has since 
occurred, and is vindicated still more to-day by the example which 
this correspondence of a lieutenant-general of the Army and the War 
Department has afforded to us and to the American jjeople. We there 
stated in regard to the case of North Carolina — 

This is the truth in a nutshell; that Holden and his official supporters have 
failed to maintain themselves by any means, foul as well as fair, in their State. 
They have appealed to popular election, and have been rejected with something 
near unanimity by every tax-payer in the State ; and now Congress is asked to 
step in and force North Carolina down again under the feet of her radical masters ; 
and we fear that Congress will attempt to do this unwise and wicked thing. Will 
the people of the North (free as yet) see this thing done and sustain its promoters? 
We hope not ; we pray not. AVhen will the men now in power learn the truth of 
what the great statesman of the last century said so wisely and well, when similar 
attempts were made to govern British India ? 

"It is the nature of tyianny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill 
success of first o])pressions.' On the contrary, all men thinking highly of the 
methods dictated by their nature attribute the frustration of their desires to the 
want of sufficient rigor. Then they redouble the efforts of their impotent cruelty, 
which producing, as they must produce, new disappointments, they grow irritated 
against the objects of tlieir rapacity; and their rage, fury, and malice (implacable 
because unpi'ovoked) recruiting anil re-enforcing their avarice, their vices are no 
longer human. From ciuel men they are transformed into savage beasts, with no 
other vestiges of reason left but what serves to furnish the inventions and refine- 
ments of ferocious subtlety for purposes of which beasts are incapable and at 
"which fiends would blush." 

Sir, is it not true that the legislation of Congress was cruel and 
severe ; and in what did it result, and what have we to-day in Louisi- 
ana? The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Morton] to-day has rather 



17 

improved upon liis well-kuown x^owers of denunciation in regard to 
those communities. There is even more often repeated the savage 
and relentless epithets of murder, and of blood, and of assassins with 
which he has sought to stain the names of those people. He has 
progressed and intensified it ; and no such ruthless instrument has 
apparently yet responded as he Avho has responded last. General 
Sheridan is more cruel than those who have preceded him ; he is more 
ruthless, and he holds out to his fellow countrymen murderous threats 
which are disgraceful to the cloth he wears and to the country of 
which he is a citizen. 

Mr. President, I desire to say to the people of this country and to 
the Senate that the proposition is now here presented for the first 
time that the President of the United States can, of his own motion 
and in his own discretion, adjudge the fact that such '' domestic vio- 
lence" at any time exists within a State as to authorize him, either 
by his powers as President or by power delegated to him by the gov- 
ernor of that State,' to interfere in the organization of a State Legis- 
lature. This is the proposition. The power is as secure under the 
constitution of the State to the Legislature to judge of the qualifi- 
cations, returns, and election of its own members as it is to either 
House of the Congress of the United States. One is as equally essen- 
tialto the continuance of our form of government as the other. The Leg- 
islature of Louisiana have as much rightful power to pass upon the 
qualifications of members of this body or of the other House of Con- 
gress as have both these Houses of Congress to pass upon the qualifi- 
cations of members of that Legislature. The same frame of words is 
used to secure the separate rights and powers of each. If one cannot 
protect itself by the respect due to established law, neither can the 
other. If lawless physical force shall be permitted to overthrow the 
rights of one, it can also overthrow the other. In either case it is a 
question of degree alone. 

I do not embark upon any sea of defense of the southern people 
against these widespread vague calumnies. I only wish to bring 
the American people to consider this point : If you admit such a 
power as this to be exercised in the discretion of the President, then 
pursue it plainly to its ultimate and logical results. It is Louisiana 
to-day; it may be New York to-morrow; it may be Massachusetts 
the day following ; it may be in the Congress of the United States 
on the 4th day of March next. Why did General Grant send lus 
troops and exercise their lawless power within the Legislature%f 
Louisiana by compelling members as old, as grave, as learned, as 
respectable as him who occupies the chair of the Senate to-day to 
leave their i^laces? Pretense of ''domestic violence " by five elderly 
and respectable gentlemen, unarmed, in the midst of Kellogg's myr- 
midons and a brigade of United States troops! It is a farce to say 
that those five men were creating "domestic violence " which author- 
ized armed intervention by the President. Did the constitution of 
Louisiana give Kellogg a right to interfere in the organization of the 
Legislature ? Just such as it gave to President Grant, and no more. 
Either was a lawless intruder, and nothing but the helplessness of 
the Legislature prevented them from lawfully imprisoning every 
officer and soldier who interfered with their proceedings. It was not 
the absence of right, but the sheer want of physical power to enforce it. 

Mr. President, if the President can do this with two regiments of 
troops, then a single brigade will suffice to accomplish the same 
thing in this Capitol on the 4th of next March. There is no physi- 
cal power in Congress successfully to resist such physical force. 

2b 



18 

There are some seventy-four members in this body, and less than 
three hundred members of the other house. The same ])roportion of 
troops wouhl be required, and a single brigade can take charge of 
this Capitol, shut off the entrance of the people, let in those whom 
they see fit, and give certificates to the Clerk of the present House 
of Representatives, who shall exclude all others. All that can be 
done, provided the x>hysical power of the Congress of the United 
States is all that stands in the way. But, Mr. President, that is not 
all that stands in the way. The American people stand in the way, 
and so they should, and so I believe they will overwhelmingly, when 
they come to comprehend this case of Louisiana, freed from the 
clamor of partisans, stand in the way of this outrage upon the rights 
of a single State, in which you have but to change the name and 
you can apply the doctrine to every one of the remaining thirty-six. 

We have had the question here before now as to whether, even 
when we come to pass upon election returns and qualifications of 
members of this body, we can undertake to determine the qualifica- 
tions of the constituent bodies which elected them. It has always 
been denied; and yet here we have decided, even where the Constitu- 
tion gives to each house of Congress the right to examine into those 
returns, that you must pause upon the threshold of a State Legisla- 
ture and not venture to pursue your inquiry as to the election and 
qualifications of its members. The violation of principles, in my 
opinion, will always return to plague those who invented it ; and I 
here to-day in my place most solemnly warn my countrymen against 
permitting such a precedent as this to escape without instant and 
most emphatic condemnation of the act, and of all who have been 
concerned in its perpetration. 

The Supreme Court of the United States in 1870 delivered an opinion 
w^hich led them to consider the relation of the States and the General 
Government, with a single dissent, and that a partial one, being 
rather to the application than to the doctrine enunciated. It will 
not fall with less weight upon the ear of the American people when 
I say that it was from the lips of the late Judge Nelson, of New 
York — claritm et renerahile nomen — that these views of the relations of 
State and Federal Government came. 

The court say: 

That the sovereign powers vested in the State governments by their respective 
constitutions remained unaltered and unimpaired, exeept so far as they were 
grjnited to the Government of the United States. Tliat the intention of theframers 
of Wte Constitution in this respect miglit not Ix; misun(h'istood, this rule of inter- 
pretation is expressly declared in the tenth articleof the amendments, namely: " The 
powers not delegatetl to the United States are reserved to the States respectively 
or to the people." The Government of the United States, therefore, can claim no 
powers which are not granted to it by the Constitution, and the powers actually 
granted must be such as are expressly given or given by necessary implication. 

The General Government and the States, although both exist within the same 
territorial limits, are separate ami distinct sovereignties, acting separately and 
independently of each other witliin tlieir respective spheres. The former 'in its 
appropriate sphere is supreme : hut the States, within the limits of their powers not 
granted, or, in the language of the tenth amendment "reserved," are as independ- 
ent of the General Government as that Government within its sphere is independ- 
ent of the States. 

******* 

Such being the separate and independent condition of the States in our com- 
plex system, as recognized by the Constitution, and the existence of which is so 
indispensable, that without them the General Government itself would disappear 
froiin the family of nations, it would seem to follow, as a reasonable, if not a neces- 
sary consequence, that the means and insti'umentalities employed for carrying on 
the operations of their governments, for preserving their existence, and fultiliing 
the high and responsible duties assigned. to them in the Constitution, should be left 
free and unimpaired, should not be liable to be crippled, much less defeated by the 



19 

•^ * * power of another a;ovenimeiit, which power acknowledges no limits hut 
the will of the legislative hody. * * * * 

Without this power, and the exercise of it, we risk nothing in saying that no 
one of the States under the form of government guaranteed hy the Constitution 
could long preserve its existence. A despotic government might. (11 Wal- 
lace's Eeport, 124-126.) 

So, sir, we have here from the calm, serene height of judicial emi- 
nence such a description and history of the true relations of the 
States to the General Government that we can more clearly appre- 
ciate the utter ruin and confusion which would come from admitting 
the rightful attempt of such power as has been attempted by the 
President of the United States within the State of Louisiana. This 
interference at all, under the guise of " recognition," has proceeded 
to a most dangerous and threatening extent. In 1844, when this doc- 
trine was first broached in the case of the State of Rhode Island, the 
power was there adjudged to be vested in the x)olitical branch of the 
Government, and not to the judicial, to decide as to the rightfulness 
of two governments claiming each to represent a State. A message 
was sent by the then President of the United States which, it strikes 
me, ought to avail much with those who desire to come at a clear and 
proper understanding of our present crisis. 

I resist — 

Said he— 
the idea that it falls within the executive competency to decide in controversies of 
the nature of that which existed in Rhode Island, on which side is the majority of 
the people, or as to the extent of the rights of a mere numerical majority. For 
the Executive to assume such a power would be to assume a power of the most 
dangerous character. Under such assumptions the States of this Union would 
have no securitv for peace or tranquillity, but misht be converted into the mere 
instruments of Executive wiU. Actuated by selfish purposes, he might become 
the gieat agitator, fomenting assaults upon the State constitutions, and declaring 
the majoritv of to-day to be the minority of to-morrow ; and the minority, in its 
turn, the majority, before whose decrees the established order of things in the 
State should be subverted. Ke volution, civil commotion, and bloodshed would be 
the inevitable consequences. The provision in the Constitution intended for the 
securitv of the States would thus be turned into the instrument of their destruc- 
tion. The President would become in fact the great constitution maker for the 
States, and all power would be ve.sted in his hands. — House Journal, First Session t 
Twenty-eighth Congress, pages 765, 766. 

This is a fair picture of what would necessarily be the result if 
such power is admitted to exist laAvf ully in the hands of the Presi- 
dent as he and his subordinates have attempted to exercise in Loub^i- 
ana. ii 

Sir, it is now presented, feebly I admit, but presented I beli^^e 
fairly oy me to the judgment of this Senate and to the American 
people. They can answer now whether the qualifications of mem- 
bers who are to be summoned either to a State Legislature or to a 
Federal Legislature — for both are governed by the same language ; 
the one found in the Federal Constitution, the other found in the con- 
stitutions of the States — shall be passed upon by the Executive. The 
power given in Louisiana to her Legislature to judge each house of 
the election, return, and qualification of its members is just as sacred, 
just as clearly given as that which enables the members of this body 
or the other kouse of Congress to judge of the qualifications of its 
membership. If language, if clear constitutional law and provisions 
cannot have the effect to protect one, then they Avill not have the 
effect to protect the other, and it seems tome to be a mere feeling of 
the jiopular pulse on this subject to see how far this attempt of power 
can be extended without resistance. If it shall be accepted, if my 
fellow-countrymen shall forget what constitutes liberty and the 



20 

vigilance necessary to protect that which was gained l»y so much toil 
and suffering by their ancestors, and if they shall disregard it in re- 
spect of a portion of their fellow-countrymen and one of the members 
of tliis Union of States, then depend upon it they will shortly be called 
upon to meet it on a broader scale, protected by no other right than 
the nominal sacredness of law as superior to official will. 

I said, sir, that I was glad that this last act in Louisiana was but 
a barefaced exercise of brute force, unaccompanied l)y any veil or 
cover of false decision by corrupt courts. I believe that, in what I 
must think the utterly disingenuous statement of the President in 
1872 that he meant simply to obey the orders of the courts, there was 
the suggestion that he was acting in subordination of the military to 
the civil power, that he was bowing his head, backed by the Army 
and Navy, before the decree of some feeble but just-minded magis- 
trate ; and there was in that something that recommended his action 
to that portion of the American people who would not or who could 
not comprehend the real history of his action. But that poor veil is 
now fortunately thrown aside. All men agree that Durell's action in 
1872 was fraudulent and absolutely void. He himself has resigned, 
hoping to escape trial, thus confessing his guilt in open court ; and 
no man in this body, however heated by partisanship, has ventured 
to say that there was justification of law for the orders of Judge 
Dureil by which a Legislature in 1873 was dispossessed of its rightful 
power, a'State-house seized and garrisoned with United States troops, 
a defeated minority placed in legislative power, and the usurper, 
Kellogg, tossed into the governor's chair and kept there by the armed 
forces of the United States. 

But now there is no Dureil, there are no alleged " orders of a 
court " to be respected, there is no pretense of bowing the power of 
the military before the civil law ; but it is the mailed hand of the 
soldier that stands to-day the sole emblem of power in the State of 
Louisiana, plainly, unmistakably. I do not propose to go over the 
tangled story of" falsehood, fraud, and wrong which marked the 
Louisiana case from 1872 to this day; but to-day my countrymen 
vcannot doubt, for " he that runs may read " the history of what is 
t\)-day, and of what I fear, if it is not checked, it will be from this 
time on. 

. Sir, this story of Louisiana and her wrongs is as old as the story of 
t'ih human heart. If men are not comfortable and are not happy, 
thm' will be turbulent and they will be discontented. And what peo- 
pley I ask, ever were hapi^y under the rule of strangers and of aliens ? 
It need not be that the stranger or the alien is necessarily corrupt, 
wicked, or unjust. Grant even that he were not; he is not their 
choice; he is not of their kith and their kin; he has not that blood 
which is thicker than water, and which we all feel binds us to those 
among whom we were born and have lived; a feeling that causes 
even the quiet earth itself to seem sweeter if it is our birth-place, 
and is implanted in our very instincts. And are human laws to be 
made without reference to human instincts ? Are you to eviscerate 
from the men, women, and children you propose to govern their na- 
tures and those habits which have become nature ? And if you do, can 
you expect the n atural effec ts not to follow ? You di sregard their hap- 
piness. Can they consider yours? If you render them unhappy and 
insecure in regard to themselves and to their affairs, will they care to 
promote your happiness and your security ? But no, sir ; the rule is a 
plain and clear one ; and would to God this Congress for an instant 
would listen to the common dictate of humanity and res^^ond to it. 



21 

€rive these people a government tliey can love ; let men rule over thena 
whom they can respect ; hut do not give them these shams of free 
government, and not expect the results of tyranny to flow and form 
it. It will not work, gentlemen. The machinery of this country's 
government was not intended for a despotism, and you cannot reach 
its results without radically changing that machinery, and at last in 
Louisiana it has been o]>enly sought to be radically changed. 

Where the people of the Southern States have been permitted to 
elect their own rulers and make laws which produce content, peace 
and qiTiet have followed, and this you all know, because there is not 
a man in this body or out of it who cannot with perfect safety and 
welcome go to any part of the Southern States, if he only goes there 
as a friend and well-wisher of the people ; and if he .be not, why 
should he go there? No, sir ; turbuleuco and uuhappiness are insep- 
arable companions in human breasts, and peace and pleasantness are 
associated and have been for all time. Give these people content, 
treat them with justice, and you shall have the fruit of such treat- 
mejit, peace and good order and strength and happiness for our en- 
tire country. Disregard these plain results, and the fruits will be 
borne that have been borne so plentifully, and which now are sought 
to be stopped only by a perpetuation and intensification of the very 
methods that have produced them. 

Mr. President, I have not forgotten that this is the anniversary of 
a day of glory to the American arms, and the illustration of that 
glory and valor was in this same city of New Orleans. AVe all were 
proud of it : not in Louisiana more than Delaware — it was generally 
celebrated in every State; and to-day patriotic associations are meet- 
ing to keep alive the memories of the glory of our common country. 

Mr. President, shall the glory of 1815 be altogether clouded and 
dimmed by the shame of 1875 ? Shall it be that those brave men who, 
against greatly disproportionate odds, defended the city of New Orleans 
against superior numbers of a foreign foe — shall those men have fought 
in vain? Shall the glory of New Orleans and the fact that she was 
the scene of honor to American arms be now clouded by being the 
scene of disgrace to the American arms ? Sir, I trust not. I hope not. 
Ambition, misjudgment, and ignorance of civil rule, high partisan 
feeling, all may liave combined to carry the executive branch of thijj 
Government and his soldiers thus far ; but I believe that when his r^^ 
tion is understood the American people will give him a comma«^ 
which he shall hear and obey, and^ that he shall be forced to recet^ 
from the position he has taken, and to take his armed hand from the 
throat of that prostrate people, and let her people once more know, 
in the language of the bill of rights of the State of Massachusetts, 
that they live under '' a government of laws and not of men." 

3 B 



4 



1 TBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
014 544 185 I 



